Pulsed laser deposition of titanium-carbonitride thin films

What is believed to be the first successful deposition of TiCN thin films by pulsed laser deposition has been reported. Ablation of a pure TiC target in a backfill of N2 gas is shown to produce crystalline TiCN films at 673 K. Control over the nitrogen concentration in the films is strongly dependent on N2 pressure, but does not appear to depend strongly on temperature. Mechanical properties are also shown to be closely related to the nitrogen concentration. Perhaps the hardest TiCN films grown by any technique are reported, and these properties correspond to low nitrogen concentrations in the film (17%). Higher nitrogen concentrations are seen to yield films of inferior properties. Pulsed laser deposition is shown to be well suited for the growth of TiCN films, and additional work focuses on understanding the salient processing-structure-property relationships necessary for performance optimization.